Count Your Blessings

As we just celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday, we are all still recovering from the overeating, the family gatherings, and the cleaning up the mess. Thanksgiving Day is a day to be thankful for all God has blessed us with. Every day we should give thanks, but it is good to have a day set aside to remind us.

As we were making the long drive back home from Missouri, I was reflecting on the many blessings God has given me, and it wasn’t long, I lost count of the many, many blessings. I enjoyed time off work to visit family and friends. I enjoyed some rest and down time. I enjoyed a wonderful feast of all the things I love to eat and had many leftovers. And I must say, I enjoyed the desserts!

I was reminded of the verse which says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with who there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17). God has truly blessed me, and I kept counting my blessings.

The hymn writer, Johnson Oatman in 1897, penned these powerful words:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God hath done;
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

There are the obvious things we are blessed with such as our family, our friends, our salvation, good health, and all the things we often think of. But my mind wondered even further, and I realized how blessed I truly am. I am truly surprised at what the Lord has done!

And I kept counting.

I am blessed to serve as the Disaster Relief Director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, serving alongside some amazing teammates and remarkable volunteers.

I am blessed to be a part of the work of the Lord through my local church, through the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention, working together through the Cooperative Program.

I could go on and on listing how God has blessed me, but rather than looking at my list, begin to count your own blessings, and you will be surprised at what the Lord has done.